Improved water-wheel



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

BENJAMIN BILLIN GS, OF MACEDON, NEV YORK.

IMPROVED WATER-WHEEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 24,608, dated July 5, 1859.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN BILLINGs, of Macedon, in the county of lVayne and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Oonical Combined Action VVater- Vheel; and l do hereby declare that the fol lowing is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specilication Figure l being a central vertical section of the water-wheel and all its immediate appendants in place; Fig. 2, a plan ofthe wheel proper, a portion of the top being broken away to show its interior construction; Fig. 3, a horizontal section in the plane indicated by the ling 0c Fig. l, exhibiting a plan 0f the crown, a portion of the top thereof being broken away to show the interior construct-ion.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

My invention consists in an improved construction and arrangement of the turbine, by which an increased combined direct and centrifugal action and reaction are produced, and consequently a larger per cent. of power is obtained from the force of a given quantity and head of water.

The improved construction consists in making the crown A and wheelB conical in such a manner that the sluices or guide-curves g g of the one and the channels h h of the other shall have an inclination downward and outward, the channels being in continuation of the sluices, as represented. This inclination should best be at an angle of about forty live degrees with the horizontal plane, so that the beneficial results ot' giving as direct a motion to the Water from the cistern or forebay O entirely7 through the wheel as possible, and a direction thereof when it leaves the Wheel as nearly horizontal as possible may be attained at the same time, thereby securing the maximum advantage of both results consistent with each other.

The crown A in construction has a cylindrical flange c projecting upward, to which the cylindrical forebay C is secured, as represented in Fig. 1. It has also a conical flan ge d projecting outward over and a little above the wheel B to receive suitable legs or supports a a.

The hub 'i ot the wheel B is secured fast and tight to the spindle E, which runs in a suitable step G at the bottom and in a stuffing-box m in the cover of the forebay.

The joints between the crown and wheel are at t t, where the upper and lower plates thereof come together, those of the wheel being in exact continuation of those of the crown, as seen in Fig. l. The lower plate of the crown fits into a groove or recess in the bottom or lower plate of the wheel, and the upper plate of the wheel in like manner tits into a groove or recess in the top or upper plate of the crown. These joints are close, and the upper joint is the only one through which any waste ot water can take place, and that way not being so direct as the channels of the wheel, even if it were not close, no appreciable amount of water could escape thereby. In truth, the conical form of the crown and wheel enabling one to cover the other, as a cap, almost completely obviates any waste of water.

The sluices f f of the crown are curved in a spiral direction according to mathematical rules familiar to those skilled in the art of constructing this class of water-wheels, and the channels of the wheel are correspondingly curved in the opposite direction in like manner according to certain fixed rules. The direction of the sluices of the crown where they meet the channels of the wheel should be nearly at right angles to said channels, so as to give the fullest effect to the direct action of the water as itimpin ges on the diaphragms or buckets which separate the said channels;

also, the direction of the channels at their orifices is so nearly tangential to the periphery of the wheel as to attain the greatest practicable force of reaction. The conical form of the lcrown and wheel, by giving the water the directest course practicable and consequently by giving it the greatest possible velocity in its passage through them, also increases the centrifugal force of the wheel. Thus all the available forces of the waterwheel are enhanced to the greatest practica` ble degree.

The sluice-gate D is of cylindrical form and fits closely into a central space in the crown A of the same shapefwhence the sluices g g open all around. The lower edge s of this sluice-cylinder makes a tight joint at a' on the is shut clown it closes the crown Waten'night. The sluice-cylindei is controlled loy means of rods n n, extending up out of the forebay and connected with any suitable contrivance for the purpose.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The conical crown A and conical Wheel B, constructed and combined. substantially in the manner and. for the purposes heroin spec1- fied.

BENJAMIN BILLINGS.

Nonesses:

, CHAS. B. SCOVILLE,

J.'L. BROWN. 

